Tag: Marco Rubio

Trump Wins Nevada. Why Does He Keep Winning? “It’s the Economy, Stupid!”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics7 Comments

Walls-600-LIWell, like it or not, the Trump Train continues to gain momentum, as he rides the rails toward the Republican Nomination as their Presidential Candidate.

Politico.com reports that

Donald Trump trounced his rivals in the Nevada caucuses on Tuesday, notching his third consecutive victory and giving the Manhattan mogul even more momentum heading into Super Tuesday next week, when voters in a dozen states will cast their ballots.

Trump’s decisive win, which the Associated Press announced immediately after polls closed, was propelled by an electorate even more enraged than the ones that had swept him to wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and a second-place showing in Iowa.

“We love Nevada. We love Nevada,” Trump declared in his victory speech. “You’re going to be proud of your president and you’re going to be even prouder of your country.”

For the first time in the 2016 primary season, media entrance polls showed that a majority of voters, 57 percent of Nevada caucus-goers, said they were “angry” with the federal government.

And, as significantly, they want to bring in an outsider to fix it. More than three in five caucus-goers said they favor someone from outside the political establishment rather than a candidate with political experience as president.

It all added up to Trump’s biggest night yet.

“Now we’re winning, winning, winning,” Trump said. “And soon the country is going to start winning, winning, winning.”

The outcome was bad news for Marco Rubio, who is now 0 for 4 in the February contests, and Ted Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses but finished a disappointing third in South Carolina on Saturday.

Those two senators continued to vie for the crucial mantle of the best candidate to eventually take down Trump. With 36 percent of precincts reporting, Trump led with 43 percent of the vote, with Cruz and Rubio trailing far behind, both tied at 24 percent.

Rubio skipped an election-night speech, while an exhausted-looking Cruz proclaimed himself the only legitimate alternative to Trump.

“The only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign,” Cruz told supporters.

Stopping Trump now looks like a steeper proposition after he trampled Rubio and Cruz on Tuesday, scoring huge wins across nearly every cross-section of the Republican Party. Entrance polls show Trump won moderate voters and very conservative voters by huge margins. He won in rural and urban areas, and among voters with only high school diplomas and those with post-graduate degrees.

Trump even handily bested Cruz among his supposed based of evangelical Christians, and, though the sample was small, topped his two Cuban-American opponents among Hispanic caucus-goers.

Trump reveled in the details. “I love the evangelicals!” he yelled. ““Number one with Hispanics,” he bragged.

And he pointedly called out the home states of his remaining rivals — Texas for Cruz, Florida for Rubio and Ohio for John Kasich — as places he now leads in the polls and will win the coming weeks.

“It’s going to be an amazing two months,” he said. “We might not even need the two months to be honest, folks.”

Indeed, it’s not clear where anyone can next beat Trump, though Cruz looked ahead to Texas, which votes on March 1, in his speech.

“I cannot wait to get home to the great state of Texas,” he said.

Cruz and Rubio now face a political calendar that plays even more to Trump’s strengths: massive made-for-TV rallies and free national media coverage, with a dozen states voting in only seven days.

Kasich, who was in last place in early returns, continued to insist he was in the race to stay. His chief strategist, John Weaver, released a memo after the race was called taking aim at Rubio, Kasich’s rival for the mantle of establishment favorite.

“Contrary to what his campaign is trying to portray, Senator Rubio just endured another disappointing performance despite being the highest spending candidate in Nevada,” the memo read. “Republicans are now left to wonder whether investing in Marco Rubio is throwing good money after bad.”

Cruz, who was neck-and-neck with Rubio in early returns, also said the Florida senator underperformed.

“Marco Rubio started working early and put a significant amount of resources into making Nevada the one early state he could win,” Cruz’s campaign wrote in a statement. “But despite the hype, Rubio still failed to beat Donald Trump.”

Low turnout put a particular premium on early organizing, in which both Rubio and Cruz quietly invested. Cruz had the backing of the state’s Republican attorney general, Adam Laxalt, and made appeals to Nevada’s rural voters with a television ad highlighting his opposition to the fact that the federal government controls 85 percent of the state’s land. (Kasich targeted the same issue in TV ads, as well.)

Rubio, meanwhile, tried to connect with Nevada voters from his time living there as a child in the late 1970s and early 1980s, telling audiences about how his father worked as a bartender at Sam’s Town and his mother as a maid at the Imperial Palace. (He still has numerous cousins in the state.) Rubio’s family’s dabbled with Mormonism during those years and Rubio hoped an active Mormon political network that lifted Mitt Romney to a landslide win, with 50 percent of the vote, would turn out for him.

But it didn’t happen.

Stumping in rural Nevada on caucus day, Trump continued to boast of his strong poll numbers in states coming up on the voting calendar, including Cruz’s home state of Texas. He warned supporters to be wary of “dishonest stuff” from Cruz, whom he dubbed a “baby” and a “liar.”

And Trump issued a warning shot to Rubio to beware taking him on: The two have largely avoided tangling but that could change if Rubio builds on his second-place finish in South Carolina on Saturday.

“When he hits me, ugh, is he gonna be hit,” Trump said. “Actually, I can’t wait.”

Trump was in a far more ebullient mood at his victory rally, where he stood behind a lectern for his third straight win, flanked by two of his sons.

Alluding to his practice in his earlier life of raking in money whenever he had the chance, Trump said: “Now we’re going to get greedy for the United States.”

Trump walked off the stage mouthing, “USA, USA, USA.”

Why is Billionaire Entrepreneur Donald J. Trump continuing to win?

To quote Ol’ Serpenthead (as his wife, Mary Matalin, calls him), James Carville,

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!

Andy Puzder, the chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants, does a great job in illuminating the point, in an op ed, posted today on realclearpolitics.com.

Jobs and the economy are top of mind for voters from both parties this election cycle according to a recent Gallup poll. This is hardly a surprise. But what was a surprise to many is the importance of immigration and free trade as economic issues for working class voters and the level of betrayal they feel with respect to their government’s handling of these issues.

These voters feel stuck between free trade policies that encourage companies to move good paying jobs outside the U.S. and the failure to enforce our immigration laws allowing people here illegally to take jobs that remain. While the economic wisdom of legal immigration and free trade policies is compelling, politicians would be well advised not to minimize these voters’ concerns.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over the past thirty years the number of people employed in U.S.-based manufacturing has dropped dramatically by 5 million. When people are living in towns where the local plant closed because a big company moved jobs to Mexico or China, it’s extremely difficult to convince them that free trade policies are working to their benefit. Recent announcements by companies like Ford and Carrier Air Conditioning that they’re sending jobs to Mexico only reinforce their frustration.

Arguments on the benefits of liberal immigration policies also have little appeal when employers are hiring illegal immigrants for good paying jobs–such as those in construction–because they’ll work for less. Lacking higher paying jobs in sectors such as construction and manufacturing, working class Americans are often left to compete for lower paying retail positions and again find themselves competing with immigrants willing to work for less.

While free trade is unambiguously good for the worldwide economy and for each individual nation, including ours, there are adjustment costs. Working class Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds have borne a disproportionate share of those costs, made worse by inexcusably lax enforcement of our immigration laws.

Scapegoating immigrants won’t solve these problems any more than the Democrats’ efforts to scapegoat the rich. But these voters have little interest in complex arguments on how free trade or immigration will improve the economy overall. Rather, they want to hear specifically how candidates are going to protect their jobs, their families and their children’s futures.

When Donald Trump talks about punishing China, building a wall, and restricting immigration–rightly or wrongly–he hits these voters where they live. Their level of betrayal with what has come to be called “Establishment” politicians is so great that they’re apparently willing to ignore any political and ideological differences they may have with Mr. Trump.

These working class voters are essential to a Republican victory in 2016. While much has been said about Mitt Romney getting a mere 27% of the Hispanic vote in 2012, Nate Silver’s “Swing the Vote” web site shows that even if he had gotten 67% he would still have lost the Electoral College vote and the election. However, with an increase of just a few percentage points in the college and non-college educated white vote, Romney would have won the presidency despite getting only 27% of the Hispanic vote.

With respect to the popular vote, the Census Bureau’s Center for Immigration Studies found that Romney would have had to increase his share of the Hispanic vote by 23 percentage points–from the 27 percent he actually received to 50 percent–to win it. However, he could also have won it by increasing his share of the white vote by only three percentage points, from the 59 percent he actually received to 62 percent.

And this assumes stagnant turnout. According to the Census Bureau, between 2008 and 2012, voter turnout for white voters without a college degree declined a disconcerting 3.7% (from 48% to 44.3%), or nearly 4 million fewer voters.

These voters are a proxy for all working class voters whose concerns cut across racial and ethnic barriers. Any candidate seriously intent on winning the presidency in 2016 must understand why they didn’t show up in 2012 and, more importantly, how to get them to show up in 2016. That will require solutions on how working class voters (white, Hispanics, black or Asian) can build a better life, pursue a career, find a path to the middle class, send their kids to college and retire with dignity.

Republican candidates should proclaim at every opportunity a simple, relatable and heartfelt economic message that allows working class Americans to believe their candidate is protecting their interests. In different times, they believed it about Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Today they believe it about Donald Trump. The question for the rest of the Republican field is whether they will believe it about anyone else.

Bingo.

Give that man a cee-gar.

As the polls show, and will continue to show, Trump is striking a resonant chord in the hearts of Average Americans, living here in the part of America, which the snobbish Political Elites refer to as “Flyover Country”, but which we refer to as “America’s Heartland”, or, quite simply, “HOME”.

Our palpable anger is one which has been building since January of 2009, when a Lightweight, who throws a baseball like a girlas inaugurated as President of the United States of America.

That anger, a result of his anti-American actions and resulting failed Foreign and DOMESTIC Policies, which have affected Americans’ daily lives, including our Household Incomes, has been exacerbated by the Republican Elite, who, in their desire to “reach across the aisle” and “go along to get along”, have distanced themselves from the Middle Class Average Americans, like you and me, who elected them to Congress in the first place.

Meanwhile, these same average Americans, (i.e., you and me), remain mired up to our necks in an abysmal swamp of bills and taxes, living paycheck-to-paycheck, afraid to make a move, for fear of drowning in an ocean of debt.

Seemingly forgotten, in all of the forgotten promises, made by Barack Hussein Obama, and Establishment Democrats and Republicans, alike, are the 94 million Americans, who are no longer, largely through no fault of their own, participating in our Workforce.

You want to talk about anger and frustration?

Try looking for work, when you are over 55 years of age.

It makes you want to give up…daily.

But, I digress…

Anger has played an important part in the forging of this great country, which will be lucky to survive Obama’s final year in office.

It was anger that formed our country….an anger over being held captive to “Taxation Without Representation”…an anger which, as a prime example of history repeating itself, Americans are experiencing, even as I type this blog.

It is this anger, which has propelled Donald J. Trump to his lead in the Republican Primary Race…and those who prefer the Washingtonian Status Quo know it.

Hence, South Carolina’s Governor Nikki Haley’s alluding to it in her Rebuttal, something which has never been done before.

When delivering a Rebuttal to the SOTU Address, the Opposition Party’s Spokesperson is supposed to discredit the sitting President, not one of their own.

But, again, I digress…

In conclusion, concerning the “Mantle of Anger”, I, like Trump, wear it proudly.

It is an American’s Right…and Heritage.

And…we will wear it all the way to November.

Until He Comes,

KJ

With Time Winding Down on the Game Clock, and Jeb! out of the Game, the Desperate Republican Elite, Call an Audible, and Bankroll Rubio

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

High-Ground-600-LAThe failure of  “Third Generation Professional Political Legacy” Jeb! Bush and the unabashed success of American Entrepreneur Donald J. Trump in the Republican Primaries, has forced the Establishment (Vichy) Republicans to “throw a lateral pass” and to bankroll Senator Marco Rubio, who , by default, has now become, “Their Guy”.

Sean Sullivan, writing for The Washington Post, filed the following report…

LAS VEGAS — Mainstream Republican donors and elected officials flocked to Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) on Monday amid a growing sense that he is the last best chance to prevent Donald Trump from running away with the ­Republican presidential nomination.

But Rubio’s path remains narrow and perilous. He has yet to win a state, and a raft of major March 1 contests known as ­“Super Tuesday” offers few obvious chances for him to do so. And if Trump keeps racking up wins, it will become more difficult to blunt his progress.

Increasingly, there is a recognition among Republican elites that if Trump is not slowed by the middle of March, it may be too late to prevent him from winning the nomination.

“The window is closing, and we need to move now,” said Bobbie Kilberg, a major Republican donor who lined up behind Rubio after former Florida governor Jeb Bush ended his campaign Saturday.

Fielding questions from reporters here Monday morning, Rubio didn’t predict any imminent victories.

“We look forward to continuing to add delegates to our count, and as we get into the winner-take-all states, I think we’re going to be in a very strong position,” he said, referring to primary contests that begin March 15.

Bush’s departure from the race has provided Rubio with a much-needed injection of establishment money and structural support. Those who sided with Bush or were reluctant to cross him now feel free to back Rubio.

Throughout Monday, a string of former Bush backers from across the country gravitated to the senator from Florida, including former Republican presidential nominee Robert J. Dole and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). In South Florida, Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo and former congressman Lincoln ­Diaz-Balart — all of whom had backed Bush — announced their support.

Rubio also picked up backers who previously stood on the sidelines, such as former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

On the donor side, in addition to Kilberg, former ambassador Francis Rooney, who gave more than $2 million to a pro-Bush super PAC through his holding company, is now with Rubio. So is financial industry executive Muneer Satter, who also made big donations to support Bush.

Phil Rosen, a New York lawyer who is a major Republican fundraiser, said he has spent the past two days on the phone with former Bush donors who are eager to join the Rubio effort.

Sen. Marco Rubio delivers his speech to a crowd at the conclusion of the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday night. (Alex Holt/For The Washington Post)
“They have a lot of disappointment about Jeb, but they are ready to put full steam ahead for Marco,” said Rosen, who said he has gotten commitments from 15 top Bush bundlers.

“I am going to continue to reach out to literally every person that was on the Bush campaign,” he said.

Rosen said he has not encountered any residual bitterness from the campaign clashes between the two men.

In a new ad released Monday that will run in Super Tuesday states, a super PAC supporting Rubio casts Trump as “erratic” and “unreliable.” It says Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), another top rival, is “calculated” and “underhanded.”

Rubio campaigned in Nevada on Monday in advance of the state’s Tuesday caucuses, which seem to favor Trump but are small and unpredictable. At his campaign stops, Rubio talked up his personal ties to the state, where he lived as a child.

On March 1, Rubio’s most pressing goal will be to eclipse the threshold required — as high as 20 percent of the vote in some states — to qualify for delegates in the states holding contests that day, most of which are seen as friendlier to Trump or Cruz.

Beyond that, Rubio is looking to the delegate-rich states of Florida and Ohio on March 15, which will award delegates on a winner-take-all basis. Rubio’s backers concede that a loss in his home state to Trump would likely be a fatal blow.

As the pace picks up, Rubio has adopted a broader message, sounding general-election notes in recent days as he has tried to bolster his central argument: that he is the most electable candidate left in the GOP field.

“Americans are the descendants of people that came here, whether it was two centuries ago or two years ago, because they refused to live in a society that told them that they could not be who they wanted to be,” Rubio said in Franklin, Tenn., on Sunday before his largest crowd of the campaign. “America is the descendants of slaves who overcame that horrifying institution to claim their stake to the American Dream.”

In a North Las Vegas hotel ballroom Sunday night, Rubio recalled recently being asked about the GOP’s minority outreach issues and responding with a story about the ethnically diverse group of South Carolina leaders who backed him.

“I said, ‘Well, just this afternoon, I was onstage receiving the endorsement of an Indian American governor from South Carolina, who has endorsed a Cuban American from Florida. And I was standing next to the African American Republican senator from South Carolina. That sounds pretty minority to me,’ ” he said.

Rubio was introduced Sunday and Monday by Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), a former Bush backer. Heller told the crowd in North Las Vegas that the race is a “two-man show” between Rubio and Trump and repeated himself in Reno on Monday. He pointedly left out Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses and who finished close behind Rubio in South Carolina.

At a rally in Minden, which was held outside on a sunny and temperate afternoon, Heller joked, “I heard that Trump kicked El Niño out of the country.”

Rubio will campaign Tuesday in Minnesota and Michigan, which vote on March 1 and March 8, respectively. There, he will continue his strategy of focusing on major metropolitan areas and suburbs.

A threat to Rubio, particularly in the Midwest, is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a centrist who finished second in New Hampshire and is signaling that he has no intention of leaving the race. Kasich will campaign in Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana this week.

In the South, Cruz — who was bruised by his third-place showing in South Carolina — remains a major obstacle to Rubio. The Texan has staked his campaign heavily on a collection of Southern states voting on March 1.

And then there is Trump, who is ahead in polling and seemingly poised to compete everywhere. Rubio aides are confident that Trump has a lower ceiling of support than their candidate. But the front-runner is fresh off decisive wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina and campaigning hard in Nevada.

At a Sunday rally for Rubio in Little Rock, Seth Flynt, 28 of Sherwood, Ark., held up an “Anyone but Trump” sign.

Flynt embodied the challenge Rubio faces in trimming down the field to a one-on-one showdown with Trump. He explained that Rubio was not his first or even second choice. His pick: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who is still in the race despite poor showings in the early states.

Okay…so now, Senator Marco Rubio is the New “Establishment Guy”.

Gosh, who could have seen that coming? **cough**  **Everybody who has been paying attention.** **cough**

The problem is, Rubio is still in Third Place, engaged in a “Bi-lingual Battle” with Senator Ted Cruz.

On his program yesterday, the Godfather of Conservative Talk Radio, Rush Limbaugh, addressed the main reason why the “Rank Amateur”, Donald J. Trump is presently beating the “Professional Politicians” like a rented mule…

But, what is one of the things you have to do to succeed in politics? (interruption) Well, yeah, you have to win, but you have to draw flies. You have to draw people. You have to make a connection with people. You have to go out there and you have to do whatever it takes, because that’s how you win. Yeah, you have to win. Yeah, you have to raise money. But you do all that by connecting with people. You have to create an army of supporters. Now, here’s Trump — a quote/unquote “political neophyte,” never done it before.In the words of the establishment, he’s inexperienced, doesn’t know what he’s doing. “We’re the pros.” The establishment cannot draw flies. The Republican establishment candidates cannot draw a crowd. They cannot connect with the voters. They have blown it. So just how…? For people who think that Trump is somehow doing all this on a whim and things are aligning and it’s just coincidental that it’s working, Pat’s point is that there’s much more than coincidence going on here.

And it looks like Trump has a better understanding of what has to be done to draw a crowd and to hold the crowd and to expand the crowd than the political professionals, the people that devoted their lives to it. And make no mistake: That ticks ’em off. Oh, do not misunderstand. Here you have this cadre of political professionals at all levels. You got professional analysts. You got professional strategists. You got professional consultants. You have professional advisors.

You have professional lobbyists. You have professional suck-ups. You have professional yes-men. You have professional everything. You’re inside the Beltway and you’ve got the best, the creme de la creme. And here comes a guy, a reality TV host carnival barker, and he’s running rings around you on your field. He’s running rings around you in your business. It makes total sense that they would be flabbergasted, that they would be discombobulated, that they would be all out of sorts and not understanding what’s hit them.

Because there’s an arrogance sometimes that attaches itself to years and years and years of unchallenged dominance or superiority. And it’s clear that the professional political class is making a mess of things.

Americans have watched in disgust as a United States President intentionally harmed our country, while he and his fellow travelers, Professional Progressive Politicians on both sides of the aisle, thumbed their noses at the wishes of the overwhelming majority of American Citizens…the people who elected them to their cushy jobs in the first place: THEIR BOSSES.

Average Americans yearned for Common Sense Leadership.

A LEADER WHO WOULD RECOGNIZE THEIR ANGER AND FRUSTRATION AND REPRESENT THEM…NOT THEMSELVES.

A Leader who would stand up for average Americans.

Americans wanted someone who thought and spoke like this man:

I don’t believe the people I’ve met in almost every State of this Union are ready to consign this, the last island of freedom, to the dust bin of history, along with the bones of dead civilizations of the past. Call it mysticism, if you will, but I believe God had a divine purpose in placing this land between the two great oceans to be found by those who had a special love of freedom and the courage to leave the countries of their birth. From our forefathers to our modern-day immigrants, we’ve come from every corner of the earth, from every race and every ethnic background, and we’ve become a new breed in the world. We’re Americans and we have a rendezvous with destiny. We spread across this land, building farms and towns and cities, and we did it without any federal land planning program or urban renewal.

Indeed, we gave birth to an entirely new concept in man’s relation to man. We created government as our servant, beholden to us and possessing no powers except those voluntarily granted to it by us. Now a self-anointed elite in our nation’s capital would have us believe we are incapable of guiding our own destiny. They practice government by mystery, telling us it’s too complex for our understanding. Believing this, they assume we might panic if we were to be told the truth about our problems.

Why should we become frightened? No people who have ever lived on this earth have fought harder, paid a higher price for freedom, or done more to advance the dignity of man than the living Americans the Americans living in this land today. There isn’t any problem we can’t solve if government will give us the facts. Tell us what needs to be done. Then, get out of the way and let us have at it.

That was Ronald Wilson Reagan, the greatest American President in my lifetime, a man who brought us together, instead of pitting us against each other….a man who stood up to tyranny, instead of embracing it…A LEADER…NOT A FOLLOWER.

He became the President of the United States by communicating directly with the American People, in straight-forward language, that we could understand.

While Trump is not Ronald Reagan, he, too, has identified the Political Reality, known as the Washingtonian Status Quo, which has been holding average Americans, here in the Heartland, hostage, for far too many years.

Now, the good ol’ boys in the Northeast Republicans’ Club, or Vichy Republicans, as I like to call them, after the failure of Jeb!, have finally begun to realize that the majority of Americans out here in the Heartland are fed up with the greed and machinations of self-serving Professional Politicians., and are scrambling to maintain their Positions of Power.

And, it is nobody’s fault but their own.

You see, boys and girls, they forgot, a long time ago, that they are not “THE BOSS”…WE ARE.

And, to paraphrase “The Donald”,

THEY’RE FIRED!

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Trump Takes South Carolina. Jeb! Quits. Why is Trump Winning? Let Me Tell You Why…

On By kingsjesterIn Politics14 Comments

thU1LM6XXMDo you believe in “momentum”?

The Associated Press reports that

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — Donald Trump tightened his grip on the mantle of Republican presidential front-runner on Saturday as South Carolina voters seething about Washington and career politicians propelled the billionaire businessman to a comfortable primary win.

One of Trump’s favorite targets, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, finally threw in the towel, suspending his campaign after a dismal finish. “Thank you for the opportunity to run for the greatest office on the face of the earth,” an emotional Bush told his supporters.

Trump looked ahead to Nevada and then the 10 primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday as he tries to increase his delegate advantage.

In a family-affair victory speech, Trump ticked off his policy promises, vowing to terminate President Barack Obama’s health care law and get Mexico to pay for a wall at the border.

“We’re going to start winning for our country because our country doesn’t win anymore,” said Trump, with his wife, Melania, and daughter Ivanka at his side.

Two freshmen senators — Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida — were battling for second place, which would give them bragging rights but might not get them any delegates in the march to the nomination.

Rubio declared, “This has become a three-person race.”

Cruz evoked his win in the leadoff Iowa caucuses as he urged conservatives to rally around his campaign, saying, “We are the only candidate who has beaten and can beat Donald Trump.”

The two-three finish of Cruz and Rubio undercut the value of some coveted South Carolina endorsements. Rubio had the backing of Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy; Cruz got the support of former Gov. Mark Sanford, now a House member.

Exit polls showed 4 in 10 voters angry about how Washington is working, and more than half saying they felt betrayed by politicians in the Republican Party.

Trump’s victory capped a week in which he called rivals liars, blamed House Speaker Paul Ryan for the GOP’s loss in the 2012 presidential race, and even tangled with Pope Francis.

He was backed by nearly 4 in 10 of those who are angry at the federal government, and a third of those who feel betrayed. He did best with men, older voters, those without a college degree and veterans.

About three-quarters of Republican primary voters support a temporary ban on Muslims who are not U.S. citizens from entering the United States. Nearly 4 in 10 of those voters backed Trump, while a third who oppose such a ban preferred Rubio.

Trump won a majority of the delegates in the South Carolina primary — at least 38 of the 50 — and has a chance to win them all.

Trump leads the overall race for delegates with 55. Ted Cruz has 11 delegates, Marco Rubio has 10, John Kasich has five, Jeb Bush has 4 and Ben Carson has three.

It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

While the real estate magnate scored a decisive win in New Hampshire, his second-place finish in Iowa to Cruz illustrated gaps in his less-than-robust ground operation, and questions remain about the extent to which he can translate leads in preference polls and large rally crowds into votes.

Trump’s win Saturday could answer some of those questions, adding momentum going into the collection of Southern states that will vote March 1.

The exit polling of voters was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research.

The final results, courtesy of politico.com, show the following…

Republican – 100% Reporting – Delegates Allocated: 44/50
Winner D. Trump 32.5% 239,851 44
M. Rubio 22.5% 165,881
T. Cruz 22.3% 164,790
J. Bush 7.8% 57,863
J. Kasich 7.6% 56,206
B. Carson 7.2% 53,326

FoxNews.com reported previously, that

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer told viewers Friday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be the victor by a wide margin in Saturday’s South Carolina GOP primary.

“I think the odds are that Trump is going to win, probably big. That’s expected,” Krauthammer said. “[But] I think the real key is going to be what the distance is between the one who comes in third, and the bottom three.”

Those are the results that might help determine the eventual Republican nominee, Krauthammer said.

“In other words, if you get Trump, [Sen. Ted] Cruz, [Sen. Marco] Rubio, in that order, and then the bottom three are in single digits it… would be a seminal event.”

“If the race is a three way race, then it really is a toss-up, who of the top three will get it,” Krauthammer said. “If it remains a six man race [or] a five man race that means that Trump will romp all the way to the nomination, because he will dominate if the so-called establishment vote is split,” he said.

Well, Dr. K, I would say that Trump won by a pretty wide margin, wouldn’t you?

Why do I believe that Donald J. Trump is still the frontrunner among all the Republican Presidential Candidates?

This brash, unabashedly American, business entrepreneur and quintessential showman has dominated the media for the past several years.

The popularity of his reality program on NBC and the catch phrase that came leaping out from it, “You’re fired!”, spread across America like wildfire.

Now, his Presidential Campaign continues to do the same.

It is not just his flamboyance that has caught the eye of Americans.

The fact is, after almost two terms of an Administration taking the great country in the world on a scenic tour of the Highway to Hell, Donald Trump is the only Republican Candidate shouting, “Hit the brakes, you idiots!”

Trump’s straightforwardness has struck a chord in the hearts of average Americans, tired of the wussification of America, being so relentlessly pushed by both modern political parties.

This is what I don’t understand about the Republican Establishment:

They run around telling everybody how Conservative they are, when in reality, they actually hold the same beliefs as Liberal Democrats.

Ronald Reagan gave a famous stump speech about the fact that the Republican Party at one time, needed “bold colors, not pale pastels”.

From what I’m seeing out of a lot of the Republicans right now, they’re not even presenting Americans with pale pastels.

…Except for Donald Trump.

They are showing their color to be Liberal Blue, while they claim to be Conservative Red.

It is almost as if they believe that the Political Tsunami, which resulted in Republicans holding both Houses of Congress, came about because they made themselves look like Democrats.

They need to come down off of Capitol Hill every now and then.

And, visit Realityville.

As the polls show, and will continue to show, Trump is striking a resonant chord in the hearts of Average Americans, living here in the part of America, which the snobbish Political Elites refer to as “Flyover Country”, but which we refer to as “America’s Heartland”, or, quite simply, “HOME”.

Our palpable anger is one which has been building since January of 2009, when a Lightweight, who has as much in common with average Americans as a Martian would, was inaugurated as President of the United States of America.

That anger, a result of his anti-American actions and resulting policies, which have affected Americans’ daily lives, has been exacerbated by the Republican Elite, who, in their desire to “reach across the aisle” and “go along to get along”, have distanced themselves from the Conservative Voting Base, who elected them to Congress in the first place.

Meanwhile, average Americans, like you and me, remain mired up to our necks in an abysmal swamp of bills and taxes, living paycheck-to-paycheck, afraid to make a move, for fearing of drowning in an ocean of debt.

Seemingly forgotten, in all of the forgotten promises, made by Barack Hussein Obama, are the 94 million Americans, who are no longer, largely through no fault of their own, participating in our Workforce.

You want to talk about anger and frustration?

Try looking for work, when you are over 55 years of age.

It makes you want to give up…daily.

But, I digress…

Anger has played an important part in the forging of this great country, which will be lucky to survive Obama’s final year in office.

It was anger that formed our country….an anger over being held captive to “Taxation Without Representation”…an anger which, as a prime example of history repeating itself, Americans are experiencing, even as I type this blog.

It is this anger, which has propelled Donald J. Trump to his lead in the Republican Primary Race…and those who prefer the Washingtonian Status Quo know it.

If the Republican establishment does not accept the fact that Americans are angry, they will go down to defeat again in 2016.

They will never achieve victory by trying to push the Jello of “Liberal Moderation” up a hill.

Hence, the failed campaign of Jeb! Bush.

In summation, the American people are tired of Political Correctness and anti-American political expediencies being forced down our throats by both political parties and trumpeted by their lackeys in the Main Stream Media.

Donald Trump, for all of his brashness and braggadocio, is a breath of free air and, quite frankly an anomaly. He’s not a professional politician. He is a businessman who wants to become a public servant.

Now, where did I hear about that sort of thing before?

Oh, yeah.

That’s the way the Founding Fathers envisioned our system of government, led by citizens, who served their term s as public servants…AND THEN WENT HOME.

But, I digress…

You know what intrigues me the most about “The Donald”?

He reminds me of one of my favorite movie characters.

He actually has a backbone.

Just remember what ol’ Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol’ storm right square in the eye and he says, “Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.” – Jack Burton, Truck Driver (Kurt Russell) “Big Trouble in Little China”

…and that, boys and girls, despite all of Trump’s faults, remains a refreshing change.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

Head of ICE: “Rubio Absolutely Knowingly Mislead the American People”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics7 Comments

cartoonmarcorubiogangof8Listen, I’m a politician which means I’m a cheat and a liar, and when I’m not kissing babies I’m stealing their lollipops. But it also means I keep my options open. – Jeffrey Pelt, “The Hunt for Red October”

The President of ICE, Christopher Crane, recently gave an Exclusive Interview to Breitbart News

…in which he detailed his behind-the-scenes interactions with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), as Crane sought to protect the nation’s ICE officers and national security.  Crane was integral to stopping Sen. Rubio’s amnesty plan from passing the House—which, as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) recently explained, “was a near-run thing.”

…In his responses, Crane addresses an incident—first detailed by Breitbart News— in which Marco Rubio stood idly by as Crane was ejected from a Gang of Eight press conference for trying to ask a question on behalf of law enforcement.

Crane, an active duty ICE officer, has served as an officer for approximately 13 years and has been elected by his peers as the president of their union, as thus their voice on the national stage. Prior to joining ICE, Crane was a United States Marine.

Here is an excerpt from that interview…

BREITBART NEWS: It is well known that the Gang of Eight reached out to big business groups and amnesty groups in the process of writing the bill. When Sen. Rubio started writing his bill, did he reach out to you and other ICE officers for your ideas and input?

CRANE: Sen. Rubio never reached out to us. He surrounded himself with big business and amnesty groups, most of which were more interested in cheap labor and their own political agendas, and had no real concern for the welfare of immigrants, public safety, or the security of our nation. This while he ignored boots on the ground law enforcement officers who work within our broken immigration system every day and know better than any what’s needed to fix it. Common sense dictates that law enforcement be at the table when creating a bill like this. I think Sen. Rubio knew that, but actively chose to exclude us because of his own personal agenda.

BNN: Did Sen. Rubio meet with you voluntarily or did he have to be pressured into doing so at the last minute? Do you remember how you were ultimately able to secure the meeting? Did it take a long time?

CHRIS CRANE: It was definitely last minute as we met in the evening and they introduced the bill a few hours later that same night. It doesn’t get much more last minute than that. Was he pressured? I definitely think so. Not just by the public, but by some in the media as well. I think appearances on the Greta Van Susteren and Gov. Mike Huckabee shows are what tipped the balance and got us in. I think Gov. Huckabee was especially important in making the meeting happen, he was genuinely concerned that law enforcement was being excluded from the process and reached out to Sen. Rubio on our behalf. Many thanks to him for his attempts to help us.

BNN: What happened in the meeting? Did Sen. Rubio make any promises to you? Did he keep them?

CRANE: To start, even though I had requested to bring someone with me, Sen. Rubio denied the request and demanded that I come alone, which I still believe was highly peculiar and inappropriate.

He, of course, had what appeared to be his entire staff in his office with me. Most of his staff stood behind me as there was no place for them to sit. I raised a series of strong concerns with the bill, and as I raised each issue, Sen. Rubio would look to his staff and ask if that was what the bill said. Each time his staff agreed with my interpretation, and Sen. Rubio would shake his head in disbelief and indicate the bill had to be changed.

Sen. Rubio talked very specifically and very directly to me and his staff saying that the changes I suggested had to be made and specifically said that other Gang of Eight members wouldn’t be happy, but “Oh well.” Obviously the changes I suggested were all serious enforcement related issues, such as establishing a biometric entry-exit system, and cracking down on sex offenders, gang members, violent criminals and other criminal aliens.

When I walked out of his office that night I definitely thought the bill would undergo significant changes, but of course absolutely no changes were made.

BNN: Almost immediately after you met with Sen. Rubio, he introduced bill. Did it include any of the changes you asked for?

CRANE: Not one of the changes we suggested was made to the bill before Sen. Rubio introduced it.

All of his strong statements during our meeting about making the changes we suggested were apparently all just a dodge to get rid of me. It quickly became obvious why he didn’t permit me to take anyone with me to the meeting— he didn’t want any witnesses.

BNN: What happened during the press conference when you tried to ask Sen. Rubio and Chuck Schumer to take a question?

CRANE: I was polite, professional and respectful at all times. I didn’t interrupt anyone or cause a scene. The press was there, but Sen. Rubio and the rest of the Gang of Eight had also filled the large room with amnesty supporters and open borders people to cheer and applaud the Gang of Eight every time they said something. It was a real dog and pony show, sort of a circus.

Because it wasn’t your traditional closed press conference, it didn’t seem at all out of place to me, as an American citizen, to politely ask these elected officials a question about the legislation they were there to discuss. After all, I thought that Congress was the People’s House.

When the floor was opened to reporters to ask questions, I too politely raised my hand and asked, “Will you take a question from law enforcement?”

The amnesty folks immediately started making hateful comments like: you’re not welcome here, you need to leave, you have no right to speak here. A commotion took place on the stage with the Gang of Eight Senators. Sen. Rubio did look directly at me, and it appeared that he told Sen. Flake who I was.

Yet, despite having looked directly at me, Sen. Rubio did absolutely nothing to allow me to ask a question on behalf of the nation’s ICE officers, sheriffs and front line law enforcement.

I was able to ask the same question approximately two more times, before a Senate staffer accompanied by Capitol Hill police approached— demanding that they escort me out.

As I was escorted out by police, some within the amnesty groups applauded, laughed at me, and made hateful remarks. Once police escorted me outside of the main room, police informed me that I was not free to go and that I was to be taken somewhere for questioning.

As a law enforcement officer I knew that their actions met the legal standard for an arrest. At that point I demanded to know the charges against me and why I was being arrested. Television cameras, reporters and microphones came swooping in, and as they did the Senate staffer scurried away like a cockroach, leaving the Capitol Hill police on their own. I was allowed to leave the area, but I think it was only because the police were afraid to handcuff me with reporters filming them.

Senator Rubio and the Gang of Eight stood there and watched it all happen. Anyone of them could have jumped to the mic and yelled for the Senate staffer and the police to stop what they were doing to me, but none did. Sen. Rubio just stood their silently and watched it happen. I am told that Sen. Rubio later stated that I should not have been removed, but he never reached out to me to say that or apologize. To my knowledge he and the Gang of Eight never called for an investigation.

If it had been Mark Zuckerberg in the crowd asking questions the Gang of Eight Senators would have been tripping over themselves to kiss his backside, but as a normal citizen without the means to filter money into their campaigns they had me forced out by police

BNN: What did you mean when you said in Congressional testimony: “Never before have I seen such contempt for law enforcement officers as what I’ve seen from the Gang of Eight”? CRANE: As ICE officers, we wrote a letter to Congress expressing strong concerns with the Gang of Eight bill. The letter was endorsed by approximately 150 Sheriffs, to include Sheriff Sam Page of the National Sheriffs Association Border Security and Immigration Committee, as well the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers and other law enforcement groups. Law enforcement officers were screaming for help from the Gang of Eight to make changes to the bill that would better provide for public safety and national security, but the Gang of Eight ignored all of them. The Gang of Eight not only ignored law enforcement, but actively fought to keep our input out. Only wealthy special interests like the Chamber of Commerce were permitted to be a part of the process. It was dirty D.C. politics at its worst.

BNN: Sen. Rubio touted his bill as “The Toughest Border Security & Enforcement Measures In U.S. History,” do you believe this was an honest representation of the bill?

CRANE: I think that’s absolutely false – there was no real promise or guarantee of stronger border security. The bill actually relinquished Congress’ authority to establish border security measures to the head of DHS. The head of DHS then had something like so six months to unilaterally develop a border security plan after the Gang of Eight bill passed.

So not only was there no real plan, but Sen. Rubio apparently thought that giving a presidentially appointed bureaucrat god-like powers over America’s immigration system was the answer to border security, this as other Republicans are fighting corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats in agencies like the IRS and Secret Service, not to mention the unlawful policies on immigration enforcement enacted by the current President. Rather than being touted as the toughest border security and enforcement plan in history, it could more accurately be touted as the worst.

BNN: Sen. Rubio pledged his bill would provide enforcement first, do you believe this was an honest representation the bill?

CRANE: No, I don’t believe it was an honest representation. Protection from deportation, a type of de facto amnesty, came almost immediately as the first step in a much broader amnesty like process provided in the bill. There was no real promise of border security in the bill, and the bill provided nothing for interior enforcement, but instead made legalization of criminal aliens and gang members a priority. People need to understand that this bill was written by pro-amnesty and open borders groups that have no concern for America’s borders or the safety of its communities. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the bill was such a lopsided mess.

BNN: Sen. Rubio’s bill legalized sex offenders, drunk drivers, and others with criminal records. From an ICE officer’s perspective, how do you feel about his decision to legalize illegal immigrants with criminal convictions?

CRANE: Under the Obama Administration, ICE released estimates stating that approximately 2 million criminal aliens resided in the U.S. That’s 10 times the size the U.S. Marine Corps, at least when I was in. And I think ICE’s estimates are low.

People need to wake up. We can’t continue to keep taking millions of the world’s criminals without expecting serious repercussions to public safety and expense and burden to our legal system. Local and state jurisdictions are already overwhelmed by the criminal alien problem in our country. To turn this around and get things back under control, the U.S. must take the opposite approach. We must send criminals back to their countries. Especially sex offenders. I can’t understand why any lawmaker or special interest group would support legalizing sex offenders, but it shows how out of control the bill really was.

BNN: In your letter, you specifically protested that the bill would legalize gang members. As an ICE officer, how do you feel that this provision was left in the bill?

CRANE: It disgusts me. Violent street gangs were literally able to lobby Sen. Rubio and the Gang of Eight more effectively than law enforcement, they had more influence on the bill than we did. Gangs were able to get provisions in the law to protect themselves. It’s absolutely insane. What on earth are our lawmakers thinking? I think it’s this type of utterly stupid lawmaking that has caused most Americans to lose faith in Congress.

BNN: Sen. Rubio was on television and radio constantly promoting his bill, which was backed by powerful special interests. What did you learn about Sen. Rubio’s character during that time?

CRANE: In my opinion, Sen. Rubio absolutely knowingly mislead the American people regarding the bill. He was not telling the American public the truth about what that bill contained.

I realize that was a lengthy excerpt. However, I felt that it was important to keep as much of Crane’s remarks intact, as possible.

Marco Rubio , judging by his Campaign Appearances and Stump Speeches, appears to be in the throes of a “mea culpa” as regards his sucking up to the Establishment (Vichy) Republicans…and the Democrats…during his tenure as a card-carrying member of “The Gang of Eight”.

My question to you: DO YOU BELIEVE HIM?

History records that, “The Gang of Eight Bill” came up for a final Senate vote on June 27, 2013. Rubio, as a key author of the legislation, voted for its passage. Cruz voted against it.

Back in January, before the Iowa Caucus, The Washington Examiner filed the following report,

Following his rapid-fire assault on Sen. Ted Cruz’s record during Thursday evening’s debate, Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign in Iowa kept up his line of attack by calling out Cruz as a follower of the political winds.Rep. Kristi Noem, a South Dakota Republican and Rubio supporter, told reporters after the debate that Cruz is nothing more than a political opportunist who supports “whatever’s popular that day,” continuing Rubio’s line of attack that the Texas senator engages in “political calculation” and not “consistent conservatism.”

“From what I heard come from Donald Trump, from what I’ve seen of actions coming from Ted Cruz, they’re not the right people for the job,” Noem told reporters after a Rubio watch party. “Ted Cruz says whatever’s popular that day. He votes one way, and then a month later will vote another way. He’ll take a position, write an op-ed on something as critical as our economic future and trade with foreign countries, and he’ll change his mind because the political winds are blowing a different direction.”

“I don’t want another president like that. I don’t want a president like the one that we have that knows how to talk, but doesn’t walk the walk,” Noem continued. I want one that will actually follow through on what he says he will do.”

Irony is embarrassed.

There are no angels in the 2016 Presidential Primaries, on either side.

For each and every candidate, including Donald J. Trump, unlike the Syrian Refugees, who Obama is attempting to force on us, there is an abundance of information out there, which shows their past thoughts, words, and deeds (or, lack thereof).

In Rubio’s Case, just as in the case of the current “Political” Pope’s insult of Donald J. Trump, as regards to calling Ted Cruz as “opportunist”, Marcio forgot that

People in Glass Houses should not throw stones.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

Iowa Caucus Analysis: Winners, Losers, and Unbelievable Spin

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

ss-120102-iowa-01.660;660;7;70;0Alright. As Maureen McGovern sang, “There’s Got to Be a Morning After”.

Now that the dust has settled, what can we learn from the results of the First Event of the Primary Season, the Iowa Caucus, or, as it is called, the “Hawkeye Caucai”?

Edward J. Rollins is a former assistant to President Ronald Reagan, who managed Reagan’s 1984 reelection campaign. He is presently a senior presidential fellow at Hofstra University and a member of the Political Consultants Hall of Fame. He is Senior Advisor for Teneo Strategy.

Rollins, a Fox News Contributor, has submitted the following op ed, analyzing the results of yesterday’s Iowa Caucus on the Republican Side of the Aisle…

It is always interesting to watch democracy in action and Iowa is ground zero.

Many political pundits and media analysts complain about the attention Iowa receives from candidates and the media because it goes first. But it also is a state filled with people who are willing to pay attention, to go to small events and forums (more than 1,500 have been held) and to show up at a caucus on a cold, often snowy night to participate in a ritual few states duplicate.

Millions of dollars are spent on TV commercials (over 60,000) and organization that Monday night produced a record turnout.

Iowa doesn’t always produce the eventual winners but it does eliminate the losers. With 17 Republican candidates starting this process, there are really only three or four real candidates now with voter support and sufficient monies to go on to the remaining contests.

With a record voter turnout in Iowa, the winner, Ted Cruz goes on with his extraordinary organization and conservative supporters with a big upset.

Marco Rubio, the best debater, came on strong and gained real momentum. He came very close to coming in second. Certainly he has to be viewed as a very serious candidate and the best bet to become the establishment candidate.

Trump is Trump and his special appeal to new voters and the angry anti-Washington element will go on, too, but with unpredictable results. He also paid a price for missing the last debate and fighting Fox News.

Ben Carson held his 10 percent base, but his candidacy is short lived and beyond Iowa has minimal support.

The biggest losers are Bush, Christie and Huckabee. Bush spent the most money and dropped like a rock.

Christie’s bluster, unlike Trump’s, didn’t sell. He has no money and no future in this race.

And Huckabee, who won this race eight years, and thought he could be a serious challenger against Romney in 2012, was a bottom dweller getting less than 2 percent of the vote. He raised no money and has no appeal and barely has enough money left to buy a bus ticket back to Arkansas. He quickly waved the flag of surrender and wisely quit the race.

One more may make the cut after Iowa, but this is the field now and it will be fascinating to watch.

Monday night’s win is a giant victory for Cruz and his team. He won in spite of a greater turnout than in years past and benefited from the dramatic increase in new voters. And now on to New Hampshire!

So, the Grand Old Party’s cup runneth over, They are seemingly blessed with 3 strong contenders for this Presidential Candidate Nomination.

The problem, as history has shown, is the fact that the Iowa Caucus is not exactly a bellweather by which to determine what will happen in November.

The other problem for the Republican Establishment, is the fact that they absolutely cannot stand the candidates that came in first and second.

Rubio, in the past, has proven to be a useful ally.

Things promise to be interesting in the months leading up to the convention.

Meanwhile, over at Propaganda Central for the Democrat Party and the Clinton Machine, otherwise known as the New York Times, Nate Cohn tried to declare the Queen of Mean, the winner of a VIRTUAL TIE.

Bernie Sanders is right: The Iowa Democratic caucuses were a “virtual tie,” especially after you consider that the results aren’t even actual vote tallies, but state delegate equivalents subject to all kinds of messy rounding rules and potential geographic biases.

The official tally, for now, is Hillary Clinton at 49.9 percent, and Mr. Sanders at 49.6 percent with 97 percent of precincts reporting early Tuesday morning.

But in the end, a virtual tie in Iowa is an acceptable, if not ideal, result for Mrs. Clinton and an ominous one for Mr. Sanders. He failed to win a state tailor made to his strengths.

He fares best among white voters. The electorate was 91 percent white, per the entrance polls. He does well with less affluent voters. The caucus electorate was far less affluent than the national primary electorate in 2008. He’s heavily dependent on turnout from young voters, and he had months to build a robust field operation. As the primaries quickly unfold, he won’t have that luxury.

Iowa is not just a white state, but also a relatively liberal one — one of only a few of states where Barack Obama won white voters in the 2008 primary and in both general elections. It is also a caucus state, which tends to attract committed activists.

In the end, Mr. Sanders made good on all of those strengths. He excelled in college towns. He won an astonishing 84 percent of those aged 17 to 29 — even better than Mr. Obama in the 2008 caucus. He won voters making less than $50,000 a year, again outperforming Mr. Obama by a wide margin. He won “very liberal” voters comfortably, 58 to 39 percent.

But these strengths were neatly canceled by Mrs. Clinton’s strengths. She won older voters, more affluent voters, along with “somewhat liberal” and “moderate” Democrats.

This raises a straightforward challenge for Mr. Sanders. He has nearly no chance to do as well among nonwhite voters as Mr. Obama did in 2008. To win, Mr. Sanders will need to secure white voters by at least a modest margin and probably a large one. In the end, Mr. Sanders failed to score a clear win in a state where Mr. Obama easily defeated Mrs. Clinton among white voters.

Mr. Sanders’s strength wasn’t so great as to suggest that he’s positioned to improve upon national polls once the campaign heats up. National polls show him roughly tied with Mrs. Clinton among white voters, and it was the case here as well. It suggests that additional gains for Mr. Sanders in national polls will require him to do better than he did in Iowa, not that the close race in Iowa augurs a close one nationally.

Mr. Sanders will have another opportunity to gain momentum after the New Hampshire primary. He might not get as much credit for a victory there as he would have in Iowa, since New Hampshire borders his home state of Vermont. But it could nonetheless give him another opportunity to overcome his weaknesses among nonwhite voters.

As a general rule, though, momentum is overrated in primary politics. In 2008, for instance, momentum never really changed the contours of the race. Mr. Obama’s victory in Iowa allowed him to make huge gains among black voters, but not much more — the sort of exception that would seem to prove the rule. Mr. Obama couldn’t even put Mrs. Clinton away after winning a string of states in early February.

Continue reading the main story Write A Comment There’s an even longer list of candidates with fairly limited appeal, particularly Republicans like Rick Santorum, Pat Buchanan or Mike Huckabee, who failed to turn early-state victories into broader coalitions.

The polls this year offer additional reasons to doubt it. Mrs. Clinton holds more than 50 percent of the vote in national surveys; her share of the vote never declined in 2008. The polls say that her supporters are more likely to be firmly decided than Mr. Sanders’s voters.

Back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire by Mr. Sanders might have been enough to overcome that history. The no-decision in Iowa ensures we won’t find out.

Wow.

I haven’t seen a job of spinning like that since Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold. (look him up, kids.)

Mr. Cohn, as we say down here in Dixie,

That dog don’t hunt.

  1. While Sanders’ strength does rely with white voters ( which is funny, because you Democrats are supposed to cherish DIVERSITY, but, I digress…), his base of power lies in the New England States, home of his Millennial Minions and a bunch of those college towns, which you referred to.  And the last time I checked, New Hampshire is located in New England.
  2. Mrs. Clinton’s Voter Base have begun to distance themselves, en masse, from her. She carries more baggage than the image of the late Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) and his buddy (Willem Dafoe), rolling through the airport, in the Biographical movie, “Auto Focus” …And, she’s just as sleazy.
  3. Momentum “never really changed the contours of the race in 2008”, because it was all on Obama’s side, from the get-go. When you have the ground troops of SEIU and their partner-in-crime, ACORN, going door-to-door for you around the nation, it provides you with an insurmountable lead in “the community”. Hillary does not have access to those ground troops.
  4. BIG QUESTION: What happens if Obama and the Democrat Elites decide that they don’t like what they are seeing, so Obama orders the DOJ to indict Hillary and Crazy Uncle Joe enters the Primaries to “save the day”?

Clinton, no matter what those “smarter than the rest of the country” in the Northeast Corridor may choose to believe, is neither trustworthy nor likable as the polls have shown, time and again. Her Political Accomplishments are all negative, bordering on the nonexistent.

Bill’s coattails can cover up only so much political stain (Ask Monica).

Somebody had better hide all of the sharp instruments at the New York Times. This could get ugly.

Get your popcorn ready.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

Republican Debate Aftermath: It’s Time for the Party to Embrace “Bold Colors” and Dump “Pale Pastels”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

conservative1The last Republican Presidential Primary Debate was held last night on CNN.,,and things got a little heated.

Foxnews.com reports that

The rivalry between Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio flared Tuesday at the final Republican primary debate of the year, as all the leading GOP candidates battled to show their tough-on-terror credentials.

Donald Trump, as in past debates, sparred sharply with his rivals on stage over his controversial proposals, notably his call to ban Muslims from entering the country. But the changing dynamics in the race appeared to drive frequent clashes between the senators from Texas and Florida – who are now battling to be the Trump alternative in the race as Ben Carson slides in the polls.

With the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., refocusing the race squarely on security issues, Cruz from the outset tried to sound a tough message against radical Islam.

“We will utterly destroy ISIS,” Cruz vowed, later adding: “ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism will face no more determined foe than I will be.”

But he repeatedly was challenged by Rubio over his Senate positions – including for legislation reining in NSA metadata collection. Rubio accused Cruz of helping take away a “valuable tool” for security officials, while Cruz said: “Marco knows what he’s saying isn’t true.”

Rubio later cited a budget vote by Cruz to say: “You can’t carpet bomb ISIS if you don’t have planes and bombs to attack them with.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie used the arguing to contrast his own executive experience against the senators’ legislative history. He described their jobs as “endless debates about how many angels on the head of a pin from people who have never had to make a consequential decision.”

But Rubio and Cruz returned to the fray later on as they tried to cast each other as soft on illegal immigration. “I led the fight against [Rubio’s] legalization-amnesty bill,” Cruz charged.

Some analysts had expected the tensions Tuesday to flare between Trump and Cruz, as the Texas senator surpasses Trump in Iowa polls and is surging nationally. But Cruz avoided taking on Trump in favor of Rubio – he even jokingly backed Trump’s plan to build a border wall.

“We will build a wall that works, and I’ll get Donald Trump to pay for it,” Cruz said.

Later on, Trump backed off comments where he said Cruz acted in Congress like “a bit of a maniac.” Trump said Tuesday, “He’s just fine, don’t worry about it.”

Instead, Trump took heat mostly from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who slammed Trump’s plan to ban Muslims from entering the United States as “not a serious proposal.”  

“He’s a chaos candidate, and he’d be a chaos president,” Bush said.

Trump fired back that “Jeb doesn’t really believe I’m unhinged” and only went after him because he’s “failed in this campaign.”

The Trump-Bush acrimony simmered throughout the debate, with Bush later telling Trump he can’t “insult your way to the presidency,” and Trump once again reminding Bush that his poll numbers have plummeted while Trump is leading.

Whether Bush’s attacks will help the struggling candidate remains to be seen. Perhaps more consequential is whether Rubio or Cruz can present himself as more capable of taking on the country’s security challenges.

All the leading candidates, though, focused on the terror threat throughout the CNN-hosted primary debate Tuesday night in Las Vegas – an event held just hours after Los Angeles closed its school system over a terror threat.

Citing that closure, which is now thought to have been prompted by a hoax threat, Christie said children will be going back to school filled with anxiety. And he said the country’s overall security environment has been hurt by President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s policies.

“America has been betrayed,” he said.

Christie cited his experience as a federal prosecutor, and governor, in saying that under a Christie presidency, “America will be safe.”

Carson also dismissed “PC” concerns about some of his own plans for taking on the terror threat.

“We are at war … We need to be on a war footing,” Carson said, while later making an argument against toppling foreign dictators. He compared the situation to being on a plane, where passengers in an emergency are advised to use oxygen masks themselves before helping others.

“We need oxygen right Citing that closure, which is now thought to have been prompted by a hoax threat, Christie said children will be going back to school filled with anxiety. And he said the country’s overall security environment now,” Carson said, adding the government needs to think of the needs of the American people before solving everyone else’s problems.

Trump also sparred at times with other lower-polling candidates.

As before, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul questioned Trump’s policy proposals, including to restrict the Internet to clamp down on ISIS’ social media use. “Do you believe in the Constitution?” Paul said of Trump supporters. Trump clarified he’s only talking about restricting the Internet in parts of Iraq and Syria.

And when Trump suggested that the money spent toppling Mideast dictators could have been better spent on building America’s roads and bridges, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina compared him to Obama.

“That’s exactly what President Obama has said. I’m amazed to hear that from a Republican presidential candidate,” she said.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich also took issue with suggestions from Cruz and Trump that the priority in Syria is not to remove Bashar Assad.

“We can’t back off of this,” Kasich said. “He must go.”

CNN also hosted a debate Tuesday for the second-tier GOP candidates — former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki. Graham was particularly critical of Trump’s Muslim ban plan at that debate, accusing him of declaring war on Islam and delivering a “coup” for ISIS.

About the scourge known as “Political Correctness”…it definitely was one of the topics for discussion last night…

Candidates in the GOP presidential primary debate Tuesday said “political correctness” has contributed to the rise of attacks by Islamic extremists in the U.S. and other Western countries.

“Political correctness is killing people,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said.

He and several of the other candidates suggested in the CNN debate that fear of offending Muslims has resulted in the U.S. intelligence community failing to aggressively find the “radicalized” members who commit terror acts.

Cruz, surging in recent polls to challenge front-running Donald Trump, also criticized the Department of Homeland Security. He suggested the agency failed to vet social media well enough to learn that the female Muslim attacker in the deadly San Bernardino, Calif., shootings this month wanted to commit jihad.  

Trump, who after the Dec. 2 massacre proposed a temporary ban on Muslims coming into the United States, has said repeatedly that he will not hew to political correctness, especially on issues of national security.  

Candidate Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, in the earlier, second-tier debate said, “We’ve defunded and tied the hands behind the backs of our intelligence agencies because of political correctness.”

You will notice that Senator Ted Cruz and Billionaire Entrepreneur Donald J. Trump have backed off going after reach other…at least, for now.

They realize that now is not the time, politically speaking.

Now is the time to narrow the field.

The Republican Party needs to encourage some of the lower-tier candidates to ease on out of the Primary Race.

Especially the one whom they were backing…Jeb Bush.

They are not helping what, at this point, appears to be the inevitable fact that the next President of the United States will be a Republican.

The problem for the Republican Establishment, is that is will not be one of them.

The public wants new ideas. We are tired of dancing to the Washington Two-Step.

That is the reason for the popularity of Trump and Cruz. They have been saying the things that Americans have been wanting to hear for some time now.

That is the reason that they are the Leaders in the Republican Primary.

Contrast them to the candidates whom the Democrats are offering: old white folks from the Northeast Corridor, one who is as crooked as a dog’s hind leg and the other, a demented old socialist, who resembles Doc Emmett Brown from “Back to the Future”.

The “Vichy Republicans” as I refer to them, are looking a Gift Horse in the mouth.

They are positioned to sweep the nation, on the way to placing their candidate in the Oval Office, buoyed by a Grassroots Movement, the likes of has not been seen since the 1980 Presidential Election, which put into office the greatest president in my lifetime, Ronald Wilson Reagan.

All the Republicans have to do to be successful is something that they seem to have forgotten how to do, since they themselves were swept into Congressional Power in the 2010 and 2012 Mid-Term Elections.

They need to pay attention and actually listen to the voters who gave them their cushy jobs.

The need to stop backing the wrong “horse”.

As Ronald Reagan, himself, said, at CPAC in 1975,

It is time to raise a banner of BOLD COLORS! Not PALE PASTELS!

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

 

Obama Embraces Another Enemy of America: Cuba

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Obama-Shrinks-2The President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, is now walking arm in arm with a “fellow traveler”: Raul Castro.

The Daily Mail reports that

President Barack Obama declared the end of America’s ‘outdated approach’ to Cuba Wednesday, announcing the re-establishment of diplomatic relations as well as economic and travel ties with the communist island – a historic shift in U.S. policy that aims to bring an end to a half-century of Cold War enmity.

‘Isolation has not worked,’ Obama said in remarks from the White House. ‘It’s time for a new approach.’

‘We will begin to normalize relations’ between the U.S. and Cuba, he added.

‘We will end an outdated approach that, for decades, has failed to advance our interests.’

As Obama spoke, Cuban President Raul Castro was addressing his own nation from Havana. Obama and Castro spoke by phone for more than 45 minutes Tuesday, the first substantive presidential-level discussion between the U.S. and Cuba since 1961.

Wednesday’s announcement followed more than a year of secret talks between the U.S. and Cuba. The re-establishment of diplomatic ties was accompanied by Cuba’s release of American Alan Gross and the swap of a U.S. spy held in Cuba for three Cubans jailed in Florida.

Gross, 65, arrived back in the U.S. shortly before Obama addressed the nation. Gross was released after more than five years in prison. He was accompanied by his wife, Judy, along with several U.S. lawmakers.

As part of resuming diplomatic relations with Cuba, the U.S. will soon reopen an embassy in the capital of Havana and carry out high-level exchanges and visits between the governments. The U.S. is also easing travel bans to Cuba, including for family visits, official U.S. government business and educational activities. Tourist travel remains banned

Yesterday, ABC News reported that…

The release of Alan Gross, the American contractor imprisoned in Cuba for more than five years, “set a price on the head of every American abroad,” Sen.Marco Rubio, R-Florida, said in an interview today.

“I would love for there to be normal relations with Cuba, but for that to happen, Cuba has to be normal, and it’s not. It is a brutal dictatorship,” Rubio, who is a Cuban-American, told ABC News’ Jeff Zeleny. “Now dictatorships know that if they take an American, they may be able to get unilateral policy concessions.”

According to Rubio, the Obama administration’s intention to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba is “terrible for the Cuban people.”

The Cuban government won’t allow free elections, political parties, or freedom of the press “just because people can buy Coca Cola,” said the Florida Republican, who is often mentioned as a potential 2016 presidential candidate. He added, “Five years from now, Cuba will still be a dictatorship — but a much more profitable one.”

“I think this has now made it even harder to achieve the sort of democracy in Cuba that you find virtually everywhere else in this hemisphere,” Rubio said.

Rubio called President Obama the “worst negotiator” of “my lifetime.”

“He’ll give up everything in exchange for nothing,” Rubio said. “What have the Cubans agreed to do?”

“The United States today, under this president, has opened up relationships with the most brutal dictatorship this hemisphere has known for the better part of 50 years. And all it’s done is it’s sent a signal to others fighting for democracy in the region and around the world that the US is not a reliable partner when it comes to fighting for democracy,” he said.

Senator Rubio hit it right on the head.

As with all of his Foreign Affairs dealings, such as those with our mortal enemy Iran and the rest of the Radical Muslims in the Middle East, Obama once again yesterday, displayed a dangerous naivete in regards to the way that the world actually works.

Obama has just spat in the face of every Cuban-American, who, at the risk of their very lives, fled the tyranny of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, to reach our American shores, and freedom.

As I was sitting down to write this blog, my mind flashed to the classic movie, “The Godfather Part II”, where Michael Corleone takes over for his father and tries to get something started for his family down in Cuba.

Unfortunately for Michael, it was right before the Cuban Revolution, when the Communists took over the island, spoiling the Mafia’s plan of turning it into another Las Vegas.

In fact, one memorable scene in that movie, occurs the night of the Revolution, when the president of Cuba and his family beat a hasty retreat, leaving their party guests, there to celebrate the New Year, on their own.

During the madness of the revolution, with the Revolutionaries knocking on the palace door, Michael grabs his brother , Fredo, and kisses him full on the mouth, telling him,

I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart.

Later, in the movie, Michael has his own brother, Fredo, killed for betraying their family.

Of course, I am NOT in any way suggesting any sort of violence toward President Obama, but, with every new slap against our country and her citizens, by this Petulant President, Impeachment, to me now, sounds like a pretty good idea after all.

Until He Comes,

KJ

From Reagan to Rubio: The Wussification of the Republican Party

On By kingsjesterIn Politics19 Comments

Cartoon-Cruz-Vs-Establishment-600I started this Blog back in April of 2010 as a way of venting my frustration with what I saw happening in the greatest country on God’s Green Earth.

I could not believe what was going on around me. The American People had elected an incompetent, pompous, didactic, divisive, self-involved, Marxist idiot to the most important position in the world: the Presidency of the United States.

The Federal Government, under the leadership of Barack Hussein Obama, and his partners in crime, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, was headed down the road to full-blown socialism, faster than Rosie O’Donnell heading to Golden Corral.

Gradually, from seemingly out of nowhere, a movement began. It wasn’t a Liberal “Astroturf” movement…it was a groundswell, started by average Americans, who were fed up with being over-taxed and under-represented by the people whom they had elected and sent to Washington to SERVE THEM.

As the movement began to take place, it was clear that this was a CONSERVATIVE movement…and a PATRIOTIC one…as they took the name “TEA Party” which stood for “Taxed Enough Already”. Just as the Colonials, who revolted against the King of England, these Americans were, and still are, fighting against “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”.

I remain proud of these Americans. As a fellow Conservative and TEA Party Supporter, they remind me of the Republican Party of my young adulthood, when, in November of 1980, at the age of 21 and 11 months, I cast my very first vote for the greatest President of my generation, Ronald Wilson Reagan. The TEA Party reminds me of the way Republicans, led by Ronaldus Magnus, were back then: plain-spoken, good-humored, honest-to-a-fault, servants of the people, whom you were just as likely to find at St. Peter’s Orphanage’s Annual Picnic in Memphis, TN, as you were at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

In fact, I and my fiancee sent a wedding invitation to President and Mrs. Reagan, and got back and official congratulations card, signed by them, from the Office of Protocol.

The Obamas think “class” is something they skipped to go “choom”.

But, I digress…

The blemish on Reagan’s record that Liberals from both sides of the aisle, are bring up right now, is his passage of a law granting Amnesty to illegal aliens.

Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986 because he strongly believed that it was time to gain control of U.S. borders and to enforce legal hiring at workplaces.

The amnesty of 3 million illegal immigrants that came with it was relatively small, and never would have resulted in 11 million new immigrants in the decades that followed had the rest of the law’s requirements been fulfilled by Congress.

Of course, they weren’t.

According to Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese, amnesty was in fact Reagan’s biggest regret, per a story in the Heritage Times, because he, like the people who supported him, believed in the rule of law.

As the halcyon days of the Reagan Administration passed by, and time moved on, the Republican Party slowly, but surely, began to distance themselves from us rubes living out here in America’s Heartland, otherwise known as “Flyover Country”.

And, as they became more isolated from the people they were supposed to be serving, they started losing elections. Sure, Dubya was elected for two terms (Thank God.), but, can you imagine either Al Gore or John Kerry as President? Without throwing up, that is?

With the election of Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), and with the Democrats controlling both the House and Senate,this nation was taken on a madcap plunge toward socialism faster than Elvis going down the last hill on the Zippin Pippin at the old Mid-South Fairgrounds.

And then, Americans stood up on their hind legs and started the TEA Party Movement.

Obama and the Democrats, and the Status Quo-loving Establishment Republicans, could not believe their eyes. “What was this mess? How dare these sheep break away from the flock!”

While Obama and the Democrats attacked us every which-way they could think us, accusing us of RAAACIIISM, carrying guns to rallies, etc., the “Moderate” Republicans, played it very cagey. They used the TEA Party during the months leading up to the 2010 Mid-terms, to get themselves elected, and win back the House of Representatives, on the promise that they would govern “Conservatively”.

Allow me to pause for a moment and say this: I am not speaking about actual Reagan Conservatives and TEA Party Members like Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and sometimes, Rand Paul. I am speaking of those Vichy Republicans, like John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, and Marco Rubio, who should just switch parties, and get it over with.

In the two years since the TEA Party propelled them to victory in the Mid-terms, the Establishment Republicans, who rode our coat tails back to the Halls of Power, have increasingly treated us badly, at first, shunning Conservatives like we were red-headed step-children, and now, insulting and degrading us like we are lepers…or their enemy.

And now, with Obama failing miserably, tanking in every single Popularity Poll, making about as much sense as a punch-drunk boxer, the Republicans appear ready to commit mass seppuku (hari kari), as I wrote yesterday, “snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory”  by pushing for Amnesty for illegal aliens, in order to supply their Big Money Donors, in the US Chamber of Commerce, with cheap labor.

In fact, that’s not the only issue that the Vichy Republicans are wussing out on…and it has Senator Ted Cruz worried, as he told Breitbart.com:

Cruz questioned how establishment Republicans unilaterally caving to Democrats on everything from the farm bill to the budget to the debt ceiling and more could think amnesty is a good idea at this time.

“Right now, Republican leadership in both chambers is aggressively urging members to stand down on virtually every front: on the continuing resolution, on the budget, on the farm bill, on the debt ceiling,” Cruz said in a statement provided exclusively to Breitbart News on Thursday.

He continued:

They may or may not be right, but their argument is that we should focus exclusively on Obamacare and on jobs. In that context, why on earth would the House dive into immigration right now? It makes no sense, unless you’re Harry Reid. Republicans are poised for an historic election this fall–a conservative tidal wave much like 2010. The biggest thing we could do to mess that up would be if the House passed an amnesty bill–or any bill perceived as an amnesty bill–that demoralized voters going into November. Rather than responding to the big-money lobbying on K Street, we need to make sure working-class Americans show up by the millions to reject Obamacare and vote out the Democrats. Amnesty will ensure they stay home.

Cruz added that granting amnesty now–while wrong in his opinion at any time–would ensure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid remains in his position in after the 2014 elections.

“Amnesty is wrong in any circumstance, and if we are going to fix our broken immigration system–and we should–it makes much more sense to do so next year, so that we are negotiating a responsible solution with a Republican Senate majority rather than with Chuck Schumer,” Cruz said. “Anyone pushing an amnesty bill right now should go ahead and put a ‘Harry Reid for Majority Leader’ bumper sticker on their car, because that will be the likely effect if Republicans refuse to listen to the American people and foolishly change the subject from Obamacare to amnesty.”

I wish we had a Senate full of Ted Cruzs and Mike Lees.

Ronald Reagan once quipped,

The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

Evidently, that applies to Vichy Republicans, as well.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Reince Preibus: “We Need Comprehensive Immigration Reform.” Palin, for Conservative Base: “See ya later, Gator?”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics8 Comments

palin-newsweekI have written a lot lately about the Senate’s Gang of 8, and the egregious Amnesty Bill, which the Senate passed last Thursday. As I have written, this bill, if it becomes law, will change America’s Political Landscape forever….and the GOP Establishment seem quite pleased about it, as is their nature as “Vichy Republicans”.

Last Friday, Former Alaska Governor and, now, Fox News Contributor, Sarah Palin wrote the following on her Facebook Page…

Great job, GOP establishment. You’ve just abandoned the Reagan Democrats with this amnesty bill, and we needed them to “enlarge that tent” of which you so often speak. It’s depressing to consider that the House of Representatives is threatening to pass some version of this nonsensical bill in the coming weeks.

Once again, I’ll point out the obvious to you: it was the loss of working class voters in swing states that cost us the 2012 election, not the Hispanic vote. Legal immigrants respect the rule of law and can see how self-centered a politician must be to fill this amnesty bill with favors, earmarks, and crony capitalists’ pork, and call it good. You disrespect Hispanics with your assumption that they desire ignoring the rule of law.

Folks like me are barely hanging on to our enlistment papers in any political party – and it’s precisely because flip-flopping political actions like amnesty force us to ask how much more bull from both the elephants in the Republican Party and the jackasses in the Democrat Party we have to swallow before these political machines totally abandon the average commonsense hardworking American. Now we turn to watch the House. If they bless this new “bi-partisan” hyper-partisan devastating plan for amnesty, we’ll know that both private political parties have finally turned their backs on us. It will then be time to show our parties’ hierarchies what we think of being members of either one of these out-of-touch, arrogant, and dysfunctional political machines.

Also, last Friday, Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, was interviewed by CNN on the subject of the Amnesty Bill, now, in the House’s hands.

Here is what he said,

We need comprehensive immigration reform. I don’t think we can continue to drift along with this mess of immigration laws that we have. And a mess that in many regards has been the results of our government not even enforcing the laws that are in place. There is plenty of blame to go around for why we are in this position, but I think it’s about time that we address it.

…it’s clear that there is pretty broad consensus in the party, in the Republican Party, that we need comprehensive immigration reform.

…My understanding is that the House is going to draft its own version of an immigration bill that they see as either a better fix for comprehensive immigration reform, or something that is reflective of the Republican majority of the House, and then potentially go to conference, and potentially have a conclusion.

…I know the leadership in the House is committed to putting something pretty comprehensive together that’s going to address the issue.

…One thing I think is pretty clear. We wouldn’t have been in this place without Republicans being at the table pushing for immigration reform. And I think this conversation would never be happening without Marco Rubio.

Although I officially began this Blog in April of 2010, I have been an observer of American Politics since I was in college, where I was the Radio News Director for the on-campus station, in the late 1970s, with a staff of 20 students, who received college credit for doing 5 minute newscasts.

Ever since President Ronald Reagan’s last day in office, the Republican Establishment has been intentionally distancing themselves from the very voter base who propelled Reagan to two terms as President.  The Silent Majority, is how Richard Nixon referred to us. We’ve also been called “The Sleeping Giant”.

We are American Conservatives, living in the Heartland of our country.

Allow me to give a general description of us for those of you up in the Northeastern Corridor and out on the Left Coast:

We are overwhelmingly Christian, unabashedly Patriotic, hard-working, loving, charitable, family oriented men and women, who still believe in the American Dream.

We want our children and grandchildren to “have it better than we had it”, a phrase which was the hope of our parents generation, as well.

We are farmers, plumbers, machinists, car salesmen, teachers, doctors, nurses,  lawyers, struggling entrepreneurs and successful businessmen. We are ministers, preachers, rabbis, and priests. We are young, old, White, Black, Asian, and Hispanic.

We love God, family, and country. We will give you the shirt off our backs. When disasters happen, we’re the first ones there, and the last ones to leave.

Since the presidency of Ronaldus Magnus, America’s Heartland Conservatives, like myself, have faithfully supported the Republican Party, receiving nothing in return, except the upturn of their self-proclaimed sophisticated, snotty noses, as time and time again, they force-fed milk toast Moderate Presidential Candidates down our throats, instead of take-charge, can-do Conservatives.

The Republican Establishment, who has evidently enjoyed the smell of what they have been shoveling on us all the years, are so convinced of their own superior intellects, they remind me of the late, great Ted Knight’s portrayal of Judge Smails, in the classic movie “Caddyshack”, starring the equally late, great Rodney Dangerfield, the great Bill Murray, and the now-washed-up, forgettable Chevy Chase.

Well, I have some news for these charter members of the DC Country Club, and their newest member, Marco “Judas” Rubio:

You are fooling no one. We know that is not rain that we are feeling on our legs.

Speaker Boehner, you and all the other Members of the GOP Elite Country Club had better consider this: 90% of those to whom you wish to grant Amnesty, will vote Democrat, no matter how many empty promises you make, and how much free stuff you give them. Also, even if they would, what good will 30,000 new voters do you, if you lose your entire Conservative Voter Base?

Republican Members of the House of Representatives, if you are tone-deaf enough and downright stupid enough to pass this Amnesty Bill, then, come 2014, I hope y’all have a trade to fall back on, because payback will be…well…you know.

Until He Comes,

KJ 

CPAC 2013: The Start of the Second Reagan Revolution?

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

reaganThanks to The Petulant President overplaying his hand in the first two months of his second term as the Leader of the Free World, America’s Political Pendulum, which began swinging to the right with the 2010 Mid-Term Elections, is now seemingly traveling at breakneck speed. And, it’s about cotton-pickin’ time!

The CPAC Convention provides us ample evidence of this. What is CPAC, you ask?

In 1973, a small group of conservative activists met in Washington to discuss the future of the conservative movement.

This meeting, convened by the American Conservative Union, resolved that an annual event was needed to rally conservatives, share strategies and promulgate and crystallize the best of the conservative thought in America. This meeting was thus the birth of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

In 1974, then-Governor Ronald Reagan was the featured speaker at the first CPAC Presidential Banquet. President Reagan’s 1974 speech set a strong, uncompromisingly pro-freedom agenda for the conservatives, building upon the foundation established by Senator Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign a decade earlier.

This speech and this CPAC were to become the catalysts for building a grassroots movement which has now, after 40 years, culminated in conservatism emerging as the dominant American political philosophy.

Taking place in Washington, D.C. each year, and now in regions across the country, CPAC educates, brings together and energizes thousands of attendees and all of the leading conservative organizations and speakers who impact conservative thought in the nation. From Presidents of the United States to college students, CPACs have become the place to find our nation’s current and future leaders and sets the conservative agenda each year.

Here are excerpts from the three best moments of yesterday:

Sen. Marco Rubio’s patriotism excited the crowd.

NBCNews.com reports that:

“We don’t need a new idea. The idea’s America, and it still works,” said Rubio, to major applause, anticipating that liberals would criticize his remarks for offering no new ideas.

…”Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot,” he said.

“The people who are actually close-minded in American politics are the people that love to preach about the certainty of science in regards to our climate, but ignore the absolute fact that science has proven that life begins at conception,” Rubio added.

Providing his prescription for the GOP as it searches for a winning path forward, Rubio said: “Our challenge is to create an agenda applying our principles — our principles, they still work — applying our time-tested principles to the challenges of today.”

Then Gov. Rick Perry showed ’em how it’s done in Texas.

Realclearpolitics.com reports

“The popular media narrative is that this country has shifted away from conservative ideals, as evidenced by the last two presidential elections. That’s what they think. That’s what say. That might be true if Republicans had actually nominated conservative candidates in 2008 and 2012,” Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) said in his address at CPAC this afternoon.

Perry also slammed President Obama for undocumented illegal immigration being released from detention centers due to sequestration cuts.

“This president’s posture, it’d be laughable if he hadn’t taken it one step too far, dangerously releasing criminals onto our streets to make a political point,” Perry told the crowd at CPAC. “When you have a federally-sponsored jailbreak, and don’t get confused, that’s exactly what that is — when you’ve had a federally-sponsored jailbreak, you’ve crossed the line from politics of spin to politics as a craven form of cynicism.”

And, Sen. Rand Paul Hit the Vichy Republicans right between the eyes.

Realclearpolitics.com reports

The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don’t think we need to name any names, do we? Our party is encumbered by an inconsistent approach to freedom. The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere. If we’re going to have a Republican party that can win, liberty needs to be the backbone of the GOP. We must have a message that is broad, our vision must be broad, and that vision must be based on freedom.

There are millions of Americans, young and old, native and immigrant, black, white and brown, who simply seek to live free, to practice a religion, free to choose where their kids go to school, free to choose their own health care, free to keep the fruits of their labor, free to live without government constantly being on their back. I will stand for them. I will stand for you. I will stand for our prosperity and our freedom, and I ask everyone who values liberty to stand with me. Thank you. God bless America.

The greatest American President in my lifetime, Ronald Wilson Reagan, spoke at CPAC in 1975. His speech was so “on point”, if you close your eyes, you can imagine him speaking at this year’s convention. Here are the highlights:

  • Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as the repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. But the significance of the election was not registered by those who voted but by those who stayed home. If there was anything like a mandate it will be found among almost two-thirds of the citizens who refused to participate.

  • Bitter as it is to accept the results of the November election, we should have reason for some optimism. For many years now we have been preached “the gospel,” in opposition to the philosophy of so-called liberalism which was, in truth, a call to collectivism.
  • I don’t know about you, but I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, “We must broaden the base of our party” – when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the difference between ourselves and our opponents.
  • It was a feeling that there was not a sufficient difference now between the parties that kept a majority of the voters away from the polls. When have we ever advocated a closed-door policy? Who has ever been barred from participating?
  • Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?
  • Let us show that we stand for fiscal integrity and sound money and above all for an end to deficit spending, with ultimate retirement of the national debt.
  • Let us also include a permanent limit on the percentage of the people’s earnings government can take without their consent.
  • Let our banner proclaim a genuine tax reform that will begin by simplifying the income tax so that workers can compute their obligation without having to employ legal help.
  • Let us also call for an end to the nitpicking, the harassment and overregulation of business and industry which restricts expansion and our ability to compete in world markets.
  • Let us explore ways to ward off socialism, not by increasing government’s coercive power, but by increasing participation by the people in the ownership of our industrial machine.
  • A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.
  • I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view.

  • And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way.

For the Republicans to remain a viable party, they must return to their small government Conservative roots.

A Moderate Republican Candidate will not win the Presidency in 2016.  Dole, McCain, and Romney are living proof of it.

Americans are ready for a second Reagan Revolution.

We already have the set-up man: Carter on steroids.

Until He Comes,

KJ